The cytotoxicity and synergistic potential of aspirin and aspirin analogues towards oesophageal and colorectal cancer

Background: Oesophageal cancer (OC) is a deadly cancer because of its aggressive nature with survival rates that have barely improved in decades. Epidemiologic studies have shown that low-dose daily intake of aspirin can decrease the incidence of OC. Methods: The toxicity of aspirin and aspirin derivatives to OC and a colorectal cancer (CRC) cell line were investigated in the presence and absence of platins. Results: The data in this study show the effects of a number of aspirin analogues and aspirin on OC cell lines that originally presented as squamous cell carcinoma (SSC) and adenocarcinoma (ADC). The aspirin analogues fumaryldiaspirin (PN517) and the benzoylsalicylates (PN524, PN528 and PN529), were observed to be more toxic against the OC cell lines than aspirin. Both quantitative and qualitative apoptosis experiments reveal that these compounds largely induce apoptosis, although some necrosis was evident with PN528 and PN529. Failure to recover following the treatment with these analogues emphasized that these drugs are largely cytotoxic in nature. The OE21 (SSC) and OE33 (ADC) cell lines were more sensitive to the aspirin analogues compared to the Flo-1 cell line (ADC). A non-cancerous oesophageal primary cells NOK2101, was used to determine the specificity of the aspirin analogues and cytotoxicity assays revealed that analogues PN528 and PN529 were selectively toxic to cancer cell lines, whereas PN508, PN517 and PN524 also induced cell death in NOK2101. In combination index testing synergistic interactions of the most promising compounds, including aspirin, with cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin against the OE33 cell line and the SW480 CRC cell line were investigated. Compounds PN517 and PN524, and to a lesser extent PN528, synergised with cisplatin against OE33 cells. Cisplatin and oxaliplatin synergised with aspirin and PN517 when tested against the SW480 cell line. Conclusion: These findings indicate the potential and limitations of aspirin and aspirin analogues as chemotherapeutic agents against OC and CRC when combined with platins

Efficient assessment of nocturnal flying insect communities by combining automatic light traps and DNA metabarcoding

Original articleIncreasing evidence for global insect declines is prompting a renewed interest in the survey of whole insect communities. DNA metabarcoding can contribute to assessing diverse insect communities over a range of spatial and temporal scales, but efforts are still needed to optimize and standardize procedures. Here, we describe and test a methodological pipeline for surveying nocturnal flying insects, combining automatic light traps and DNA metabarcoding. We optimized laboratory procedures and then tested the methodological pipeline using 12 field samples collected in northern Portugal in 2017. We focused on Lepidoptera to compare metabarcoding results with those from morphological identification, using three types of bulk samples produced from each field sample (individuals, legs, and the unsorted mixture). The customized trap was highly efficient at collecting nocturnal flying insects, allowing a small team to operate several traps per night, and a fast field processing of samples for subsequent metabarcoding. Morphological processing yielded 871 identifiable individuals of 102 Lepidoptera species. Metabarcoding of the “mixture” bulk samples detected 528 taxa, most of which were Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera. There was a reasonably high matching in community composition between morphology and metabarcoding when considering the “individuals” and “legs” bulk samples, with few errors mostly associated with morphological misidentification of small and often degraded microlepidoptera. Regarding the “mixture” bulk sample, metabarcoding identified nearly four times more Lepidoptera species than morphological examination, mostly due to the recovery of DNA from very damaged specimens that could not be visually identified, but also thanks to the retention of body parts and DNA of specimens removed for the “individuals” and “legs” bulks. Our study provides a methodological metabarcoding pipeline that can be used in standardized surveys of nocturnal flying insects. Our approach efficiently collects highly diverse taxonomic groups such as nocturnal Lepidoptera that are poorly represented when using Malaise traps and other widely used field methodsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spatio-temporal aquatic vegetation patterns in former channels in relation to their isolation from the river Rhine (Eastern France)

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